Systems and methods for hose routing in programmable motion systems
A programmable motion robotic system is disclosed that includes a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm; and a hose coupling an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source, the hose being attached, in a joint portion of the hose, to at least two adjacent arm sections of the plurality of arm sections mutually attached to a joint of the plurality of joints such that the joint portion of the hose remains substantially outside of any plane defined by motion of the mutually adjacent arm sections when rotated about the joint.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/811,291 filed Feb. 27, 2019, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUNDThe invention generally relates to programmable motion systems, and relates in particular to robotic systems, such as robotic pick-and-place systems whose task is to move objects from one location to another. The application for such systems could include any kind of material handling system that might benefit from automation, including automated package handling, automated order fulfillment, or automated store stock replenishment.
Some such robotic pick-and-place systems may employ vacuum gripping to pick items. Many common vacuum systems generate a vacuum at the end effector using a Venturi pump, which involves providing high pressure (e.g., 80 psi) air blown over an aperture to generate a vacuum at the aperture, and which vacuum is used for picking up objects, such as products, packages, boxes, shipping bags, etc. These systems require a low enough quantity of air that a small diameter (e.g., less than ¼″) hose can be used to supply the high-pressure air at the end-effector. Such small diameter hoses are flexible enough, e.g., have a small enough bending radius, that they may be easily routed to the end-effector in a way that accommodates the motion of the robot e.g., an articulated arm in a large workspace. In such systems, the routing of the hose, for example, typically follows the contours of the articulated arm, bending or rotating with each joint of the articulated arm.
On the other hand, some robotic pick-and-place systems have been designed to grip items where leaks cannot be prevented. In order to sustain a vacuum, the system needs to compensate for the air loss from leaks. Such systems therefore must be able to pull a large amount of air through the vacuum gripper compared with the aforementioned Venturi pump-generated vacuum approach. These higher flow vacuum sources cannot typically be generated at the end-effector, and instead are often generated by a stationary blower placed near the robot. In such systems, however, instead of having a small amount of high-pressure air being pushed to the end-effector through a small diameter hose, significantly more air is pulled from the end-effector by a lower pressure vacuum through a much larger diameter hose. Because friction in the hose increases with the square of the air speed, the higher air flow necessitates a larger diameter hose. Doubling the hose diameter halves the required air speed for the same volumetric air flow, thus larger diameter hoses reduce friction and losses.
Larger diameter hoses, however, are problematic. Larger diameter hoses are less flexible, they take up more space, and they are heavier, all of which makes it difficult to provide the robot with the freedom of movement within a large workspace. Larger hoses need to be rigid enough to withstand collapse under vacuum, yet pliable enough to provide enough flexibility to accommodate the movement of the robot arm in its workspace. Many such hoses are made of plastic and attain their limited flexibility by being designed in a helical lip configuration, where, for example, a continuous helical lip is provided along the length of the hose.
Where a bend forms in the hose, the bend in the lip has some freedom of movement that gives the overall hose some bending compliance. The bend in the continuous lip, however, may fail under cyclic loading, e.g., if the hose is repeatedly bent beyond its intended bending radius, or if it is repeatedly bent and unbent over a relatively long period of time. A robotic pick-and-place system, for example, may undergo millions of back-and-forth movements per year, and a poorly designed air handling design that subjects a hose to millions of bends per year will cause the hose to fail.
The requirements for mobility and freedom of movement within the workspace are particularly challenging. In addition to needing the hose to bend, a robot that swings up to 360 degrees about its base will need the hose to twist. The end-effector often needs to attain a large number of possible orientations in certain applications, which means that the attachment from the end-effector to the hose needs to accommodate the multitude of directions in which the hose mount needs to point as the robot moves from one place to another, for example, picking up items in arbitrary orientations.
While cable routing schemes exist for numerous types of cables and are suitable for narrow hoses, none satisfies the needs of using a large diameter hosing system on a small scale robot. There remains a need therefore, for a hose routing scheme for large diameter hoses in programmable motion devices.
SUMMARYIn accordance with an aspect, the invention provides a programmable motion robotic system that includes a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm; and a hose coupling an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source, the hose being attached, in a joint portion of the hose, to at least two adjacent arm sections of the plurality of arm sections mutually attached to a joint of the plurality of joints such that the joint portion of the hose remains substantially outside of any plane defined by motion of the mutually adjacent arm sections when rotated about the joint.
In accordance with another aspect, the invention provides a programmable motion robotic system including a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm; and a hose coupling an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source, the hose being attached, in a joint portion of the hose, to at least two adjacent arm sections of the plurality of arm sections mutually attached to a joint of the plurality of joints such that the joint portion of the hose defines a plane that includes a direction that is generally parallel with an axis of rotation of the joint.
In accordance with a further aspect, the invention provides a programmable motion robotic system including a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm; and a hose coupling an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source, the hose being attached, in a joint portion of the hose, to at least two arm sections of the plurality of arm sections with a joint of the plurality of joints therebetween such that the joint portion of the hose defines a plane that includes a direction that is generally parallel with an axis of rotation of the joint.
In accordance with yet a further aspect, the invention provides a method of providing a high flow vacuum source to an end effector of a programmable motion robotic system, the method including providing a hose that couples the end effector to a vacuum source, said hose including a joint portion of the hose proximate a joint of the programmable motion robotic system; and rotating at least one arm section attached to the joint about an axis, wherein the joint portion of the hose defines a plane that includes a direction that is generally parallel with the axis of rotation of the joint.
The following may be further understood with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
The drawings are shown for illustrative purposes only.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONIn accordance with various embodiments, the invention provides a method of mounting a large diameter cabling or hose on a multi-link mechanical system that (1) minimizes changes to the bending of a hose during motion, and (2) minimizes the maximum bending of such a hose in potential robot configurations.
Instead of bending in the plane of the motion of the rotating links (articulated arm sections), the hose is mounted in a way that it bends out of the plane of the articulated arm sections' motion. As shown in
As the attachment points are positioned close to each other, the hose tangents at the attachment points become nearer to perpendicular to the plane of motion. As the attachment points are positioned more distant from each other, the hose tangent points become nearer to the plane of the link motion. In accordance with further aspects of the invention, as the sections rotate about a joint's axis of rotation, the hose slides through and/or rotates about attached mounts that swivel about mount axes of rotation.
Though there remains a change in the bending during a motion, the degree of change in bending is lower than in a common hose routing scheme, as shown before. The strain—or change in bending—over the course of the motions is lower than with the in-plane scheme.
In accordance with various aspects of the invention, the vacuum at the end effector may have a flow rate of at least 100 cubic feet per minute, and a vacuum pressure of no more than 50,000 Pascals below atmospheric. The hose may have an inner diameter of at least 1 inch (or at least 3 inches), and may include a helical ribbing as discussed above.
To better show the system from multiple angles,
The hose routing of embodiments of the invention may be applied to a plurality of arm sections of an articulated arm system.
With reference to
The hose attachments may be fixed, may provide swiveling, and/or may provide for translation of the hose through the attachments in various aspects of the invention. The swivel attachments may also have more than one degree of freedom (DOF). While the swivel may only allow rotation of the hose about an axis that is in the plane of the motion, a swivel joint may accommodate other additional DOFs including: the hose may twist through the mount to reduce torsion on the hose, the hose may slip through the mount to lengthen or shorten the hose segment between attachment points, and the attachment may permit small deflections of the rotation axis also to reduce total bending energy.
The hose attachments 142 of the system 140 are fixed position, yet may optionally permit translation of the hose through the attachments as shown by the double ended arrows. The hose attachments 144 of the system 140′ are swivel attachments that may rotate with the hose, and further may permit translation of the hose through the attachments as also shown by the double ended arrows. Note that the hose 86 in
The system may also provide hose routing in accordance with aspects of the invention including hose attachments on non-adjacent arm sections.
Hose routing approaches of various embodiments of the invention allow for a chain of such kinds of attachments and hose segments to be provided that would exploit out-of-plane motions for a multi-link articulated arm programmable motion robotic system, with the objective of minimizing the maximum bending energy, and reducing the amount of cyclic loading to which the hose would be subjected.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that modifications and variations may be made to the above disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A programmable motion robotic system comprising:
- a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm; and
- a hose that couples an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source,
- wherein the hose includes a plurality of joint portions, each joint portion of the hose being attached to two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that the joint portion of the hose remains substantially outside of any plane defined by motion of the mutually adjacent arm sections when rotated about the joint, and
- wherein the hose extends across the plurality of arm sections at each attachment point such that the plurality of joint portions of the hose alternate on opposite sides of the plurality of joints and a tangent to the hose at each attachment point of the plurality of joint portions of the hose is substantially perpendicular to any plane defined by the motion of the mutually adjacent arm sections when rotated about the joint.
2. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vacuum source provides, via the hose, a vacuum at the end effector having a flow rate of at least 100 cubic feet per minute.
3. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vacuum source provides, via the hose, a vacuum at the end effector having a vacuum pressure of no more than 50,000 Pascals below atmospheric.
4. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hose has an inner diameter of at least 1 inch.
5. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hose has an inner diameter of at least 3 inches.
6. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hose has a helical ribbing.
7. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hose includes at least three joint portions of the hose, each of the at least three joint portions of the hose is attached to at least two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that the at least three joint portions of the hose each remain substantially outside of any plane defined by motion of the mutually adjacent arm sections when rotated about the respective joint, and wherein a tangent to the hose at each attachment point of the at least three joint portions of the hose is substantially perpendicular to any plane defined by the motion of the mutually adjacent arm sections when rotated about the joint.
8. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hose includes no portion of the hose that is attached to at least two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that the joint portions of the hose each remain substantially inside of any plane defined by motion of the mutually adjacent arm sections when rotated about the respective joint.
9. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the end effector includes a flexible bellows.
10. A programmable motion robotic system comprising:
- a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm; and
- a hose that couples an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source,
- wherein the hose includes a plurality of joint portions, each joint portion of the hose being attached to two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that each joint portion of the hose defines a plane that includes a respective direction that is generally parallel with an axis of rotation of the respective joint, and wherein the hose extends substantially perpendicular across the plurality of arm sections at each attachment point such that the plurality of joint portions of the hose alternate on opposite sides of the plurality of joints.
11. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the vacuum source provides, via the hose, a vacuum at the end effector having a flow rate of at least 100 cubic feet per minute.
12. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the vacuum source provides, via the hose, a vacuum at the end effector having a vacuum pressure of no more than 50,000 Pascals below atmospheric.
13. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the hose has an inner diameter of at least 1 inch.
14. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the hose has an inner diameter of at least 3 inches.
15. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the hose has a helical ribbing.
16. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the hose includes at least three joint portions of the hose, each of the at least three joint portions of the hose is attached to at least two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that the at least three joint portions of the hose each defines a plane that includes a respective direction that is generally parallel with an axis of rotation of the respective joint, and wherein the hose extends substantially perpendicular across a respective arm section at each attachment point of the at least three joint portions of the hose.
17. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the hose includes no portion of the hose that is attached to at least two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that the joint portions of the hose each defines a plane that includes a respective direction that is generally not parallel with an axis of rotation of the respective joint.
18. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the end effector includes a flexible bellows.
19. A programmable motion robotic system comprising:
- a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm; and
- a hose that couples an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source,
- wherein the hose includes a plurality of joint portions, each joint portion of the hose being attached to two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that each joint portion of the hose defines a plane that includes a respective direction that is generally parallel with an axis of rotation of the respective joint, and
- wherein the hose extends across the plurality of arm sections at each attachment point such that the plurality of joint portions of the hose alternate on opposite sides of the plurality of joints and a tangent to the hose at each attachment point of the plurality of joint portions of the hose is substantially parallel with the axis of rotation of the joint.
20. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the vacuum source provides, via the hose, a vacuum at the end effector having a flow rate of at least 100 cubic feet per minute.
21. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the vacuum source provides, via the hose, a vacuum at the end effector having a vacuum pressure of no more than 50,000 Pascals below atmospheric.
22. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the hose has an inner diameter of at least 1 inch.
23. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the hose has an inner diameter of at least 3 inches.
24. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the hose has a helical ribbing.
25. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the hose includes at least three joint portions of the hose, each of the at least three joint portions of the hose being attached to at least two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that the joint portions of the hose defines a plane that includes a respective direction that is generally parallel with an axis of rotation of the respective joint, and wherein a tangent to the hose at each attachment point of the at least three joint portions of the hose is substantially parallel with the axis of rotation of the respective joint.
26. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the hose includes no portion of the hose that is attached to at least two adjacent arm sections mutually attached to a respective joint such that the joint portions of the hose defines a plane that includes a respective direction that is generally not parallel with an axis of rotation of the respective joint.
27. The programmable motion robotic system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the end effector includes a flexible bellows.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Feb 27, 2020
Date of Patent: Nov 26, 2024
Patent Publication Number: 20200269416
Assignee: Berkshire Grey Operating Company, Inc. (Bedford, MA)
Inventors: Calvin Toothaker (Medford, MA), Alexander Paxson (Acton, MA), Victoria Hinchey (Winchester, MA), John Richard Amend, Jr. (Belmont, MA), Benjamin Cohen (Somerville, MA), Christopher Geyer (Arlington, MA), Matthew T. Mason (Pittsburgh, PA), Thomas Wagner (Concord, MA)
Primary Examiner: William C Joyce
Application Number: 16/802,810
International Classification: B25J 9/04 (20060101); B25J 9/16 (20060101); B25J 15/06 (20060101); B25J 17/02 (20060101); B25J 19/00 (20060101); B25J 18/00 (20060101);